The Pact Ch. 01

When they are in sight of the back door of the inn he stops, still in the woods. He says tersely, "Here you are," and she can sense the tension in him. It occurs to her that he probably wasn't a woodsman by choice, given the village's attitude towards orcs.

She feels a sudden, intense well of sympathy for him, so as walks past him, she turns and says, "Thank you for trying to save me," and kisses him on the lips. She meant it as a quick peck but the instant their lips touch, she feels a deep hunger and kisses him hard, wrapping her arms (and one leg) around him. He seems startled but then reciprocates. A minute later, they separate breathlessly and spend a moment staring into each other's eyes.

"So, yeah, good night," she stammers out, pulling back and walking quickly to the door. What the hell was that? she wonders as she lets herself in. When she glances back, she sees Bubba standing there in the shadows, staring after her in what appears to be a state of shock. She quickly closes and latches the door and turns to see Bill standing in the kitchen, looking pissed. Fuck, she thinks.

"Where have you been?" he demands.

"I..." she begins, trying frantically to think of a plausible story while she's standing there, twigs in her hair and dirt and moss crusted to her thighs with semen. "I had to pee?" he finally manages to reply, lamely.

"Oh," he says, anger draining from his face, "Okay. Well, get to bed. Another long day ahead of us tomorrow." He turns and leaves. She hears his footsteps as he heads upstairs.

She just stands there for a minute before saying, "What the fuck?" to the empty kitchen. The cat sleeping on the table has no commentary to offer, so she heads up to the attic and falls into bed without bothering to clean up. Her dreams are intensely pornographic and by morning, her damp bedsheet is wrapped around her and she smells strongly of sex.

While she tries to compose herself, Bill pounds on her door. "Come on, Lisa! Wake up!" he bellows.

She sighs and replies, "I'm just not up for it this morning, Bill."

"Oh," he says through the door, with the same tone as before in the kitchen. "Are you sick?" he asks.

"Yeessss," she replies.

"Okay," he says and she hears him walk off.

She frowns. She keeps frowning as she sneaks out the back and cleans up in the wash basin. When Bill's wife Geraldine stomps over and demands to know why she's bathing in the wash water, Lisa looks at her and offers, tentatively, "I'm not."

The big woman blinks and says, "Oh. Okay, then," and proceeds to dump her armload of laundry into the tub, despite the evidence of last night's activities floating in it.

Lisa gets out of earshot before says, "Well, damn." Then she giggles with the pun. "Devil's tongue makes me a liar," she says to nobody and then nearly jumps out of her skin when a voice from the woods says, "Makes sense."

She glares at Bubba, crouched in the shadows. "What the fuck, Bubba?" she demands.

He isn't immediately forthcoming, so she asks, "Why are you following me?"

"I'm finding myself enthralled by your preternatural beauty," he admits.

She gave him a hard look.

"No, seriously. I think I'm under some sort of enchantment," he offers.

She thinks for a moment and then sighs. "The kiss," she says.

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking," he says. A woman passes by and glances at her curiously, as she appears to be talking to a shrub, Bubba having disappeared into the darkness. When she's gone, Lisa hears him say, "I don't suppose you're seeing anyone?"